Ukraine

DCSaints_Fan said
He did with the freezing of foreign aid (which did affect Ukraine to some degree, though not military). Its a clear sign Trump doesn't want to play world policeman anymore, at least not where its the US strategic interest (China and some aspects of the ME nonwithstanding)

Trump may be more reasonable, at least in this respect, than alot are thinking

It may come down to which party Trump thinks is being less reasonable. If Putin (or Zelensky) overplay their hand, they are flirting with disaster. Right now it does appear at least to neutral observers, Ukraine is the more reasonable party, as they indicated they would be open to freezing the conflict mostly along current lines, in exchange for hard security guarantees

Most of what I'm hearing coming out of Russia is demanding Ukraine hand over unconquered territory, pull back from Kursk, and demilitarize with no security guarantees. Thats a non-starter

I don't see this conflict stopping or at least not churning on in most areas/regions where fighting has been most vicious and nastiest despite Trump's peace or armistice overtures especially if Putin and Russian negotiatiors try to over play their hand and demand unconquered territory, pulling back from Kursk and no firm security guarantees. Trump and his State Dept. team know that these terms are a non-starter and won't be accepted by Ukraine and even if talks break down or drag on back and forth for the next several months, how much leverage does Putin have as this time goes bye?

Even if there is some amicable armistice agreement by maybe early-to-mid summer,.DC Saints, it will still take the Russian economy and military years, maybe a decade or two to recover from the severe, fraught and deep damages its received over the past three years. It will take a long forking time for them to match and regain their same military prowess and might they had, pre-2022, and by the time their even 50% close to fixing those problems, Putin will probably be long dead by that point.